Pictures of our trip

Again, most of these pictures kind of suck ass due to how dark it was in there, but trust me, it's a GREAT time. They go out of their way to recreate the period, from table settings to the building itself to the way everyone (including the servers) spoke.




































This was part of the ceiling inside the lobby. ("Lobby" isn't really the right word--it was HUGE--but it's where everyone gathered and looked around while they were waiting to go inside.)













This is the Lord (the THE Lord, mind you) ;) who addressed the crowd from a balcony in the reception area; he gave us the rules for the evening, explained how everything worked, etc.










This picture REALLY came out dark but I wanted to try to capture our pewter place settings because they were so cool. I adjusted the contrast, brightness, etc and this is the best I could do. (The battery was too low for the flash to work on my camera, plus I was scared of spooking the horses.)

Inside the arena

These were all taken as the knights were getting ready to come out. You can see the rows of tables (kind of). Each long table seats 9 (so our group had our own table, which was cool--and let me tell you, they DEFINITELY knew we were there, LOL).

Fog filled the floor right before the knights were introduced.










"Our" knight (who threw me a flower, but only because I was standing up and screaming like a damn Knight Groupie. We were in the very first row, center, so I was pretty hard to ignore.)

Our knight again, preparing to do battle. (Damn, that's hot.)

Medieval Times

Yesterday, Missy, Nikki, Steph (another sister), Lynda, her husband Shawn and some people Missy and Nikki work with took a little road trip to just north of Chicago. We were going to Medieval Times, where we would experience "the magnificent age of chivalry, pageantry, knights, jousting and tournaments" and "partake in a sumptuous feast as a spirited tournament unfolds before" us. (I took that straight out of my souvenier program, since they described it way better than I could have.)

Anyway, it was really cool. I'll be posting some pictures shortly. Unfortunately, the actual "arena" part was pretty dark during the actual show, so it was hard to get any good shots of that. Plus, once the actual jousting and competitions started, I was too busy yelling for "our" knight (shown int these pictures) to really worry about taking many pictures. Each section was given a knight to cheer for. We women really got into it, hollering and cheering and shouting--I haven't yelled like that since my last concert--but most of the guys seemed to be too cool to stand up and wave their flags in support of their hero. ;)

We had to get there at 4:30 for the 6:00 show. We thought it was to help facilitate seating and maybe that was part of it; the bigger reason, though, seemed to be so we could mill around their lobby, buying souveniers and EXTREMELY expensive drinks (although they DID come with collectible glasses).

The show really was exciting. I had a great time. I wouldn't recommend driving three hours out there, watching the show and then driving three hours back all in one day like we did, but if you live close to one of the locations (or if you make a weekend out of it), I HIGHLY recommend it. Renee and Kish, I think this is something your boys would love, even if they're not into "medieval" stuff at all.

I drove with Dan, Mike and one of the other girls, since Steph's van was full and, silly me, I didn't want to sit on the floor during the whole trip. (I'm high-maintenance like that.) It was a little weird at first, since I didn't know the other two at all and I've met Dan like once, but three hours in a car will bond you with someone. Plus, Dan had a laptop with a GPS system on it that was really fun to play with and various computer games. (Our drive home was spiced up when we got pulled over; apparently Dan was going 42 in a 30, but we were lost, didn't know where we were and the cop took pity on us. Plus, as he said, "If you're just coming from Medieval Times, you probably don't have any money left anyway, so I'm just going to give you a warning.")

All in all, good times. Thanks to Nikki for putting that whole thing together! (Kish and Renee, I have a DVD and that program, if you wanted to look at them to see if it's something you'd be interested in--especially you, Renee, since you live so close.)

"You're stupid!"

***WARNING: This post is rated R for explicit language***

As most of you know, I live north of Chicago; almost to Wisconson. So when I come "home" to Holland, I have to drive through Chicago and around the lake to get there. I usually have my son in the car with me, so aside from speeding, I'm always on my best driving behavior.

Last weekend Brent stayed home with my husband while I went to Holland for the March of Dimes walk and to drink the night away with Jen :-) I was very much looking forward to the drive, even though I was leaving at rush hour on Friday. Not a big deal, because at least I could listen to cds instead of a SpongeBob video or Moose Songs or something else that makes me want to drive off the road.

Traffic SUCKS (to be exact, I didn't touch the accelerator for 2 hours), and to make it worse, the express lanes aren't open. But it's all good, cuz I'm singing my heart out and I know it will all be worth it because I'm gonna have fun over the course of the weekend.

Now, even though the express lanes are closed, there are still the off-ramps for them that would merge into my lane (my motto for driving in Chicago is to Get Left, Stay Left, so I'm always in the left lane). Suddenly, the little Mazda in front of me pulls a road block by getting between the left lane and the merge lane. I looked in my rear-view to see a black SUV flying up the merge lane, thinking his stupid ass is gonna get a little further ahead in the stopped traffic by pulling this little move. What a jackass, right? I'll be damned if I'm letting him in front of me, so I immediately follow the Mazda, thinking it will be a little more effective cuz I have a Soccer Mom Van. SUV guy is not giving up. I'm about a frog's hair from the Mazda's bumper; couldn't get closer if I wanted to. Still, SUV guy is inching his way closer-- so close our mirrors are almost touching. I'm getting PISSED and even more adamant that he's not getting in front of me, when the bitch in the passenger seat looked at me and said, through closed windows, "Let us IN!"

Oh, hell no. You do NOT expect me to let you in after pulling such an assinine move. She actually looked SHOCKED that I wasn't letting them in. Like what they did was acceptable and *I* was in the wrong. I rolled down my window, being thankful that Brent wasn't in the car so I can do this, and said "FUCK YOU!" She looked quite taken aback, and rolled her window down.

Stupid Girl: "what did you say?"
Me: "You heard me, and you are NOT getting in front of me; that's NOT what that lane is for and you know it!"

At this point, I contemplated throwing my bottle of water at her, but something made me not (probably my desire not to be in jail during the charity walk I was to participate in the following day).

Stupid Girl: "You're a BITCH!"

***And my brilliant response?***

Me: "Well... you're stupid!"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.

There were at least three cars behind me that also did not let them in. That ass clown would have been better off just staying where he was in the first place. Them being behind me is all the more reason to be thankful I didn't chuck my water bottle at Stupid Girl; they could have taken my license plate # and that would have sucked for me :-)

The moral of this story, ladies and gentleman, is to drive like a normal person; don't act like you own the road. If you act a fool, be prepared for a barrage of foul language and, possibly, full water bottles that would be thrown mostly out of frustration, but still hard enough to hurt at least a little bit.

I Love My Son

Brent drew me the cutest picture yesterday. He's all about cop cars, fire trucks, ambulances, etc. He loves seeing them, asks a million questions about them, always draws them, play with his Hot Wheel ones constantly. At a classmate's birthday party at a fire station last month, he chatted with a firefighter for 15 minutes. Unheard of for him.

The picture is of a police car and an ambulance, and underneath each, he wrote what they are, "just in case you didn't know, Mom". I'm not sure why, but his funny spelling made me misty-eyed. He turned 5 in February; I think he did a pretty good job. "Ples" was written under the police car. "Ambleis" was written under ambulance. He pronounces it "amblience", so it was pretty close to how he says it :-)

Just had to share with everyone how adorable my son is :-)

Who, me?

Your Inner Child is Angry

You're not an angry person. But when you don't get your way, watch out. Like a very manipulative kid, you will get what you want. Even if it takes a little kicking and screaming.

http://www.blogthings.com/howisyourinnerchildquiz/

Happy Anniversary!

I just realized that this past Sunday was a very monumentous occasion here at Broken Road. April 23 was the TWO YEAR anniversary of the beginning of this blog. Two damn years. I can't believe I've actually stuck with it for this long. Hell, I can't believe that YOU guys have, for that matter.

This blog has provided a way for "my girls" (including LoB and Fred)--no matter where *I* am or all of YOU are--to stay in touch, have fun, offer support and guidance and, for some of you, waste valuable company time. It's actually brought some of my respective friends--who otherwise may never have met--together. And, of course, it also provided the basis for the infamous Blog Party last summer (speaking of which, I do believe it's time to start planning Blog Party 2006....).

While composing this entry, I looked back at some old posts....and oddly enough, it was on this exact date last year that I realized our first "anniversary." We may just have to change the anniversary date to the 26th, since this is the only date I can apparently remember.

Anyway, thanks for another great year. I'm excited to see what this next year has in store for us all (LOL, I feel like it's New Years or something).

Twelve.

That's the total number of days that elapsed between receiving my hot, stylish and fun Britney skates and actually SKATING in them. (For the record, I actually took them out of the box the very day I got them, thank you very much. And they were QUITE the hit with Paige and Tyler.)

The Walk

Well, we did it--and we finished it in just a little over an hour, too. We really knocked out those miles pretty easily (although I did get a little more tired towards the end, due to the countless free bottles of water I was carrying in my backpack; for some reason, I felt the need to pick some up at every station we came to). Good times were had, hands were compulsively washed and laughs were shared. I saw Tyson for the first time since our "break up"--it actually went just fine and we had a good time walking together and getting caught up. We did an unofficial count of the money raised by the entire team (which, mind you, was just 6 of us or so), and we came in just short of $1500. Not too bad!

I'm still too traumatized to talk about the breakfast that FOLLOWED the walk (let's just say that Greg ended up meeting my mother and she was in FINE FORM), but I'll try to post about that part later. I'm still waiting to see what happens at Part 2 of Jen's Hell on Earth tonight (some of us, including Said Mother, are going out bowling tonight, and he said he was going to meet us for a little while for that, too--to "talk to my mom some more." I, frankly, am sure that he was just being polite and is halfway to Canada by now).

Bring Ted’s Daughter to Work Day

Today is Bring Your Child to Work Day, here at the office. For the record, I voted against this day from the beginning. I don’t have kids yet and am not all together fond of them. They’re noisy.

Anywho, parents were only allowed to bring one child. This caused several parents to have to choose between their children, causing life-long grief and counseling issues for those left behind. Ted has two kids and wanted to bring both. Because I’m a sucker and can’t say no to anything (or maybe because I’m a sweet, giving, angel of a person – no, that can’t be it), I finally ended up agreeing to bring Ted’s 12 year-old daughter to work so that she could come, too.

It’s been quite a day around the office. We had a few dozen kids running around the place. I believe a fight may have been broken up in the boy’s room. The girls made t-shirts and decided to write sexy girl on most of them (these are 6 to 12 year-old girls, mind you). The CEO's gumball machine was quite the attraction. We ate our breakfast, lunch and had a cake & ice cream snack.

When I got my kid, we set her up with an email address, something every girl needs. It actually went surprisingly well and our hour flew by!

Update: Aw! She just came over and thanked me for sponsoring her and that she had fun! Maybe kids might not be so bad after all…

Theme song for your life

Out in MySpace land, there's this "bulletin" (which are kind of like email forwards) which states that the #1 chart-topping song on either the day you were born or your 18th birthday (depending on the version you read; both are going around) is said to be your life's theme song.

For me, that is either If You Leave Me Now by Chicago or I'll Make Love To You by Boyz II Men.

I'm not exactly sure what to make of that (I'm either going to have a really bad love life or a damn GOOD one, LOL)--but either way, check it out yourself at http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/member/birthdayno1.php and post the results here.